Law Symposium - Fall 2009

Violence on Campus: Students Who are a Danger to Self or Others and Appropriate Institutional Responses

Friday, November 6, 2009Millhiser Moot Court Room

Violence on college campuses, whether in the form of student suicide or a student endangering the lives of others, is an all too common phenomenon. In the wake of these tragedies, institutions of higher education come under intense scrutiny for both their preparedness and their responses to such incidents.

Our symposium will explore what the fields of psychology, medical science, and law can teach us about these tragedies and will attempt to gauge a consensus on appropriate institutional responses. The morning will lead off with Gary Pavela, author of Questions and Answers on College Student Suicide: A Law and Policy Perspective. Ensuing discussion will concentrate on students who are a danger to themselves and examine interventions that campus personnel might make to identify at-risk students and help them before disaster strikes. The afternoon session will be keynoted by Lucinda Roy, Seung-Hui Cho's English tutor at Virginia Tech and author of No Right to Remain Silent. The following panel will focus on students who pose a threat to others and the steps that institutions of higher education should take to ensure their students' safety.

sponsored by the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice,the Frances Lewis Law Center, and Barbri

Symposium Participants

GARY PAVELA, who will lead us off, is a well-known authority on campus suicide and other issues of students on campus. Among his writings is the book, Questions and Answers on College Student Suicide: A Law and Policy Perspective. He has been at the University of Maryland for a number of years, but is now at Syracuse.

LUCINDA ROY, our luncheon speaker, is Alumni Distinguished Professor in the Department of English at Virginia Tech. She was Seung Hui Cho's tutor and is the author of No Right to Remain Silent, dealing with the Va. Tech tragedy.

MORNING PANEL

DARYL LAPP is a lawyer in Boston who has represented MIT in several cases dealing with suicides committed by students on that campus.

ANN POLLINGER HAAS is Director of Prevention Projects for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in New York. She developed the College Screening Project, a test that students may take online to help assess their potential need for counseling, especially in instances where suicide may be a danger.

EILEEN RYAN is Medical Director for the Institute of Law, Psychiatry & Public Policy at the University of Virginia, and is also Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Neurobiological Sciences at U. Va.

AFTERNOON PANEL

BELA SOOD is Chair of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children in the Department of Psychiatry at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in Richmond. She was on the Governor's Review Panel that examined the events at Virginia Tech.

RICHARD BRUSCA is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who advised the Governor's Review Panel during its work.

DONALD CHALLIS is Chief of Police at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg and an expert on campus security.